Recently, on vacation to West Virginia, I paid a visit to a hobby shop in Nitro, a city about 25 miles southwest of Charleston, West Virginia. There, I picked up one of Athearn’s HO scale RTR AMD103 passenger locomotives equipped with a quick plug. Upon returning to Kentucky, when I tested it out on DC, I found that it was very noisy, and would run fine for about 5 minutes and slow to a stop, even if the power pack was on full throttle. I took the loco off the track, took the body off and put my fingertip on the outside of the motor, and found that it was very, very hot. I ran the locomotive without the body, and it would no longer be noisy but would still be very hot. I let it cool for about 10 minutes, ran it again, and got the same result. Could any one of you experts out there suggest a possible remedy for this particularly annoying dilema?
sounds to me like something is caught in the driveline and binding it. What you should do is tear down the loco and clean everything, then reassemble and re-lube everything and try again.
Look for carbon deposits between the commutator contacts on the motor. In some cases, deposits can be heavy enough to draw current and heat up the motor. If this has occurred, it is possible the edges of the commutator contacts are sharp and they are “shaving down” the brushes. You can remove the deposits by cleaning out the gaps with the back side of an Xacto # 11 blade. Afterwards, run the motor at low to mid speed and burnish the contacts with a piece of very fine sandpaper, then clean out the gaps again.
While you have the drive chain disconnected, check the motor for any binding by turning the shaft slowly several revolutions. It should spin freely. the motor’s shaft should have a little front to rear play; it should not be so tight as to cause friction.
If you have an ammeter, check the motor’s current with an input voltage set to twelve volts. It should be less than one ampere. A crack in the magnet assembly or a fragment dislodged in the motor could be the culprit.
If you find the motor at fault, I recommend replacing it with a Mashima motor from A-Line; your locomotive will run like a Athearn Genesis unit, drawing less current, running quieter and your wheels and contact points will stay cleaner longer.
It almost sounds like the flywheels may be to close / tight against the motor. If so you should be able to move them enough to get clearance. I would also put a drop of oil on the ends of the motor shaft to make sure the oilite bearings have enough lubricatioin.
These problems should be non-existent on a a brand new loco. It seems that with Athearn, like most other manufactuerers these days, profits are the only (stockholders) concern these companies have, and quality has become “BLIND.” Just build it, and the Americans will buy it.
My suggestion is to isolate the motor and apply power to it directly without the driveline attached. IF it runs fine, problem is in the driveline. If not the problem is in the motor. The one and only motor problem I have had with my Athearns is someone did not seat one of the magnets properly and it was interfering with the motor. A lot of people are usually quick to jump on the motor but a new and well tuned Athearn motor is fairly quiet and smooth.
Are you willing to pay at least an extra $10 per locomotive to have it tuned and tested prior to shipping from the manufacturer? That’s my estimate (probably low by 2X) of what it would cost to track test and repair (if needed) every locomotive. RTR has never truly been “ready to run” out of the box because for the most part we haven’t been willing to pay for the extra labor to get the model to that point. Things typically left for the modeler buying an RTR model include adding/installing hand rails, adding/correcting details, re-installing details that came loose in shipping, break-in, gauge and coupler check/correction, and fixing design defects. Most model train manufacturers will absorb a certain amount of customer service just because they believe it’s the right thing to do, and will generally make good on manufacturing defects (known design defects, if correctible at reasonable cost, get fixed in the next batch).
If you are willing to pay the extra for the test and tune, have you approached your LHS about doing this as an add-on service for folks like yourself? Many MRs prefer to do their own tinkering and tuning, and save the extra $$, figuring the effort is part of a “hands-on” hobby.
Very, very few model train companies are large corporations with stockholders demanding regular high profit margins. Most are run/owned by MRs themselves who perform the work as both a way to make some money, and as a labor of love.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
I think the lack of fog is getting to me in coastal northern California these days, I’m getting too grumpy about all the complai
The saving grace with the Athearns are that they have a mechanism that is fundamentally well-designed, very easy to maintain and repair, and withstood the test of time.
It’s not hard to learn how to tear down an Athearn loco and do the tune-up (which as with any other piece of mechanical equipment you really should do periodically anyway to keep them in good running shape).
What’s the difference between an engine that runs well for just a year before it breaks, and an engine that runs well darn near forever? You guessed it-- The owner!
Not trying to raise an argument-, but then why are most of the RTR made in China; and if they aren’t really ready to roll, then why don’t the companies just sell the models in pieces, so we don’t have to worry about taking them apart.
hi all, new question on this… does Athearn have a warrantee? just read a post on this board about someone who called them and said the caboose he just bought was cracked. they told him it would be $11.75 (or just about). And by the way nyred, if u haven’t tried any of these suggestions on this or any other of your athearns they really do work. AND if u do use a mashima, it will run like a KATO or an Atlas. Kato makes a project motor for $20 but you will need sleeves from A-line to fit the flywheels I did that in an SD 40-2 (doing nothing to the trucks except replacing the wheels) and it runs silent and much stronger.
You’re lucky if you have only had one problem with an Athearn motor. I will give Athearn credit for producing a working somewhat reliable locomotive; their offerings were great compared to the Life Like, TYCO, AHM types when the standard mechanism we all know was first introduced.
Let me first say all non-brass HO scale diesel modelers owe a debt of gratitude to Irv Athearn and his innovation. The following is not a flame of Athearn; it is an observation shared by many people.
I purchased my first Athearn unit in 1972; I ended up with over 40 units total. And yes, the motor was upgraded by Athearn over time. But not by much. As compared to the average motor in RTR units today, it is noisy and draws to much current. Most motors draw less than 500ma when stalled. Athearn (not Genesis) motors draw anywhere from 1A to 1.5 A stalled! The quality of the motors is inconsistent. If you are using DC on your layout, the wheel cleaning, bolster contact cleaning and track cleaning may be your only issues. However, on DCC, you may experience quirky decoder operation or eventually motor controller failure. This does not happen to everyone because the results do vary. But that variance is enough to want more consistency in motor performance. If Athearn changed the motor to the motor types used in their Genesis offerings or changed it to a Atlas/Kato type the locomotives will run better, quieter, and be more suited for DCC / DCC sound ins
I’m not saying the motor couldn’t be quieter but they are a far cry from the ones available in the early 70’s when there were outside bearing trucks, sparks and so much noise a sound decoder could not be heard. The motors I have used, I have taken out of the locos before use to check them and without the rest of the drive are relatively smooth and uniform in their starting voltages. Perfect? No, but then again they are not $150 -$200 locos… You get what you pay for and people need reliable low cost options
The Athearns I have are all under 10 years old and I have had one of my Athearns chipped for three years now with no problems. Never had to reprogram it due to a problem with the loco specifically. Operator playing with speeds and momentum, yes… Same with the other two that I had for a couple of years. Heck
I live in West Virginia and shop at that hobby store. It’s the only good one around. I have never bought an engine there, though, and if needs be, you could possibly ship it to me and I will run it down to Nitro and get your money back or have it replaced if all else fails. Good luck!